Flea (music artist)

As our regular readers might recall, we didn't especially enjoy Red Hot Chili Peppers' appearance Sunday night during the otherwise-delightful Super Bowl halftime show by Bruno Mars. Did our distaste for the band's rendition of "Give It Away" have anything to do with the fact that Flea appeared to be playing a bass that wasn't plugged in, as a number of keen-eyed observers pointed out following the performance? It did not. Before it's a concert, the Super Bowl halftime show is -- like the football game that surrounds it -- a full-tilt TV spectacle, one far more dependent on energy and charisma and visual style than on whether actual instruments are...

“Dhoom 3: Back in Action” -- the latest sequel in the popular Bollywood buddy cop series -- will shoot on and around lower Michigan Avenue Thursday and Friday.
There will be street closures from 9:30 am to 4 pm both days on lower Michigan Ave. from South...

Day 2 is done at Lollapalooza in Grant Park, and what a day Saturday was: It was sandwiched by much-anticipated sets by Chief Keef and Frank Ocean, and in between came the first evacuation in the festival’s Chicago history. Here’s how it went down, with...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Truck-stop reality might not strike a lot of people as having TV potential, but when the Travel Channel happened upon a place off Exit 121 along the Interstate Highway 70 corridor just west of here, lightning struck.
TV crews came...

Although it may look like Grandma’s farmhouse, deep inside this Malibu home is a hippie-vibe recording studio belonging to drummer Jack Irons, a founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Priced last year at $1.975 million, the house is now relisted...

Minnie Driver, who starred in the TV miniseries "The Red Tent," has pulled up stakes, selling her Hollywood Hills home for $1.5 million.
The Spanish-style house, built in 1926 and boasting original details, features a central courtyard....

Michael Balzary, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist better known by his stage name Flea, has paid $2.47 million for a two-story home in Los Feliz.
The Traditional-style residence, built in 1939, occupies a corner lot of about a quarter of an acre with a...

Jake Gyllenhaal, who stars in the recently released thriller "Nightcrawler," has parted with his gated compound in Hollywood Hills for $3,262,500.
The single-story home, built in 1948, sits on nearly two acres with expanses of lawn, mature...

If you’ve been following the arc of Thom Yorke and Radiohead, it probably doesn’t need to be said that his latest solo album isn’t a back-to-basics affair. Put another way: No, Yorke still isn’t interested in guitars.
Vaguely hinted at by Yorke in a...

I’d probably only been covering jazz for the Los Angeles Times for a year or so when the phone rang at my desk and on the other end was Charlie Haden.
For a half-second, I was terrified. Was this how I was going to find out that the tiny voice in my...

"Woke to find out I'm in a new supergroup," tweets Red Hot Chilli Peppers bassist Flea. Meanwhile, longtime fans of the aggressively challenging punk outfit At the Drive-In and the thinky hard rock of Mars Volta woke to the news that...

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Dhani Harrison, Brendan Benson, Butch Walker and more than a dozen other musicians will take part in Petty Fest 2014 when the benefit event sets down April 3 at the El Rey Theatre for its Los Angeles stop.
The show,...

Lakers Coach Mike D'Antoni apologized for his postgame comments after the team's 117-90 loss on Monday night to the Phoenix Suns.
When asked if the team's fans were discouraged, D'Antoni snapped back with an answer he later admitted regretting.
"If...

Neil Young turned up in Los Angeles on Wednesday night at a hilltop mansion in Silver Lake that hosted the annual benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory music school, the event spearheaded by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, singer Anthony...

Many, many words had already been written about Lou Reed's influence before the iconic New York rocker died Sunday at the age of 71.
But the death of the former Velvet Underground frontman has of course triggered a fresh wave of testimony, including some...

One of the hottest tickets in Los Angeles this month was for a last-minute club show by Atoms for Peace, the high-profile side project built around an odd couple of alternative-rock superstars.
The concert was in preparation for an extensive world tour...

INDIO -- "I feel like I'm in 'Lawrence of Arabia,' " Anthony Kiedis said Sunday night, not long after Red Hot Chili Peppers had taken the main stage at Coachella for the final headlining performance of the three-day festival. Kiedis was...